


The Rescue

by bocje_ce_ustu



Series: Spizzichi e Bocconi (Tumblr Writing, Fills and Flashfics) [8]
Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Angst, Awkward Attempt at Writing Action Scenes, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 06:30:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14731727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bocje_ce_ustu/pseuds/bocje_ce_ustu
Summary: When a rescue mission at their former university goes south, Charles thinks the time has come for goodbyes.Erik disagrees.





	The Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this](http://otpdisaster.tumblr.com/post/151761356710/person-a-holding-person-bs-fatally-wounded) prompt by [otpdisaster](http://otpdisaster.tumblr.com):  
>  _"Person A holding Person B’s fatally wounded, half-conscious body close with one arm while pointing a gun with the other to fight off the vicious zombies surrounding them. Person B keeps weakly begging A to run."_  
>  Originally posted (with minor differences) on Tumblr [here](http://bocje-ce-ustu.tumblr.com/post/170988874257/otpdisaster-person-a-holding-person-bs-fatally).

“I said BACK OFF!”

Unsurprisingly, that had next to no effect on the bunch of lurching undead closing in on them. Erik forced himself to call them that,  _the undead_ , because the alternative – recognizing it was their dead classmates he was relentlessly unloading his gun at – was unthinkable.

_All cognitive functions shut down with the victim’s decease, remember? We studied that._

Even with a steel nail wedged deep into his spine and pain bleeding all through their connection, Charles couldn’t help showing off.

Erik stretched his arm to aim at the mangled neck of the nearest zombie, pulling on the burning gash in his side. He missed. The creature kept coming closer. The gun clicked empty a few times before he realized, and when he did he hurled it with an exasperated snarl, twisting his hand and watching an octopus-like metallic mass pin the zombie down with its tiny pointed tentacles. The creature twitched, then went still. Erik let out a ragged breath.

_I thought we were getting a degree in Contemporary Lit, not Neuroscience._

Levity didn’t suit him as well as it did Charles, but the man cradled in his arms was generous enough to indulge him with the impression of a smile at the memory.

It had all begun then, in a time so far gone Erik felt like it belonged to another life, another world, where zombies were just the next urban myth you could read tons of paperbacks about. Where he had been talked into sitting in for Emma at her Popular Media class, and he had been awarded with meeting a bright-eyed, quick-witted telepath sitting in for his sister.

‘That’s not  _World War Z_ ,’ Erik had whispered, pointing his chin at the book lying open in front of the handsome stranger. It was far too thick and fine-printed to be mistaken for one of the garish softcovers crowding the course syllabus, the details of a brain section too meticulous and Greek-worded to match the lecture in pseudoscientificness.

 _That’s not it either_ , a warm voice had reverberated within him, and blue eyes had hinted at Erik’s pen skating across his notebook as it mapped out the schematics of a Brown-Curtis turbine as if of its own accord.

And it was only fair that their end would come here where it all had begun, even though Erik failed to recognize the place, the once-familiar desks now a twisted mess of wood and steel, half of the walls crumbled down to rubble, the plaster shaken off the other half, a jagged crescent of pipes jutting out from the sides and bent around the two of them – a last helpless attempt to stave off their attackers.

It had been right then that, out of the corner of his eye, he had seen Charles fall to the ground. The same desperate energy that had called on all the metal in the room had then left him in a rush, the shock knocking the breath out of him and weakening his knees.

“You must get… out of here.” Charles wrenched Erik out of his head with stubborn determination. His breathing was shallow, his rasping voice the telltale sign that all of Charles’s energy went into shields to screen Erik from the worst of his pain and, possibly, even leech some of Erik’s own. “Take Raven home.”

“I can’t leave you.”

But the undead kept advancing, and Erik’s grip on his powers kept growing weaker and weaker. He was losing focus, his vision turning grey at the edges at every piece of metal he flung against those monsters.

“You can’t carry me… too slow… would be the death of you. If you leave now, I might yet—”

Erik felt the effort Charles put into hiding the words he could feeling hanging in the air nonetheless.

“No.”

“Erik…”

“You’re suggesting I let them  _feast_  on you! I won’t do that.”

“It’ll give you time to…” A strained cough. Erik winced. “… to run and regroup, find Hank…”

“… and wait for the day it’ll be your corpse trying to gobble us up?”

“It’ll be quite an… easy one to elude,” Charles said, so damning serenely it riled Erik up. The section of rebar he had extricated from concrete pierced through a zombie’s neck and dragged it across the room as it skewered another two.

Then, suddenly, a deep frown cut across Charles’s forehead, and his voice took on a sharp edge. “I told you to go.”

Erik didn’t even have the time to wonder at that. As soon as the words left Charles’s mouth, the classroom door fell from its hinges under the weight of half a dozen zombies, slamming down on the few that were near it on their side.

“And I told you to cut the crap,” came a familiar voice in an equally familiar annoyed tone.

Raven hopped inside with all the grace she was allowed by the pile of unmoving corpses under her feet and made a beeline to where Charles and he were.

“I can’t leave you alone for five minutes!”

She kneeled beside them and gripped Charles’s hand in hers, a soft smile over a hard-clenched jaw, without sparing so much as a glance for Erik.

She had known. Erik couldn’t resent her the cold shoulder. He would have done the same.

Charles inhaled sharply and shifted just so, his cheek dragging lightly on Erik’s thigh. Erik’s thumb brushed over Charles’s ribs in return.  _I know. Save your strength._

“We’re going to get you out of here,” Raven was saying, and Erik looked up to tell her he was ready, that it was the least he could do, but as he did his eyes caught a movement beyond Raven’s shoulder, and he shouted “Watch out!” instead as what once had been Darwin lunged at her from behind.

Raven whipped around, but it was too close, too late.

Sheer desperation melted a portion of piping hanging over the zombie’s head, pelting it with a shower of shrapnel.

“You wound me, man!” the zombie complained, shielding itself with a hand that turned into a thick concrete-like slab under Erik’s eyes.

_It can’t be..._

“Darwin!” Raven cried out. “It’s really you.”

Erik offered him a rueful smile, but Darwin only shook his head. “It’s just me for now,” he said, eyeing the doorway critically. “Not for long though. Looks like the party’s coming to us.” He frowned as he took in Charles’s injuries. “You hang in there, Prof. It’ll just take a minute.”

“So good to… to see you, Darwin.” Charles managed a proud smile. “No wonder… I could only feel a blink… You’ve been…” he coughed “… adapting.”

“Well,” said Darwin, stepping back to the doorway and confidently stretching out an arm which had reverted to its usual state. “You know what they say.” A zombie creeping in through the entrance launched itself on the proffered arm, which then turned back to being greenish and decaying. “If you can’t beat them…” His free arm turned into a resplendent vice grip that sang to Erik’s senses as it closed around the zombie’s neck and detached the head in a swift move.

Raven snapped back into action as a new pair of undead came through the door, helping Darwin taking them on. “We thought we’d lost you.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Darwin’s clenched fist ignited, easily melting rotten flesh and bone. “I was hoping to find Angel.”

“She’s safe.” Raven’s hand closed around a piece of pipe she’d found on the floor. She considered it with a grimace before simply whacking one of the creatures with it, looking at it in confusion when it sliced through the zombie’s body with its newly sharpened extremity. She whipped her head to cast Erik a feral grin. “Charles found her two days ago, now she’s at the shelter with the others.”

“Thank God. Alex would never for…” Darwin trailed off. “Is Alex…?”

“… ever going to forgive you?”

A blast from the far end of the classroom slammed a whole line of undead into the wall, rattling it ominously.

“Try not to make the building collapse while we’re still inside, will you?” a tall mass of partly bloodied and thoroughly pissed blue fluff protested.

“Whatever you say, Beast,” Alex replied, but he was already running towards them at full speed and looping his arms around Darwin, kissing him and laughing in relief.

Erik looked away, many different feelings warring inside his chest, and focused his gaze on Hank’s slowly approaching form. Apart from the blood-caked fur, he was sporting a limp and a cut over one eyebrow, which possibly made his expression even more thunderous as his eyes roamed from Charles’s lying form to Erik’s injuries and finally fixed on his face.

“I can carry him,” Hank said in a low growl that brooked no argument. “Can you stand?”

Erik nodded grimly and supported Charles’s shoulders and head as Hank lifted him off the ground.

It was hard to look at Charles mumbling something as he nestled his head against Hank’s chest. Strong, brave Charles that had insisted to be on that rescue mission even though his power left him helpless against their enemy. Strong, brave Charles that Erik had hurt.

Standing up was harder, and he had to rely heavily on Raven’s support not to fold in on himself all over again.

Hank cleared his throat, gaining everyone’s attention. Alex and Darwin parted, but kept their hands linked together. “The west exit is clear. We’d better go.”  
  
  



End file.
